At the conclusion of the Great Jubilee of the Year 2000, the Holy
Father John Paul II gave the Church the gift of the Apostolic Letter Novo
Millennio ineunte, a precious document that beginning with a
profound reflection on the Holy Year just concluded relaunches the
Church towards the future, towards the third millennium. We might say
that Novo Millennio ineunte is the navigation chart for
"putting out into the deep", Duc in altum; it is a
pastoral programme, a guide for the Church's journey.

In the Apostolic Letter we find a strong and urgent reference to
young people. The Pope invites the young people to be "morning
watchmen" at the dawn of the new millennium. In the document the
Holy Father makes an analysis, a detailed memorandum of the Jubilee Year
and in number nine he takes into particular consideration the Jubilee of
Young People. At the beginning of the third millennium we cannot forget
that the experience of Tor Vergata was a breath of hope for everyone. It
was the largest gathering of people in Europe's history, the largest for
the number of its participants but also for its meaning. In referring to
it in Novo Millennio ineunte, the Holy Father says "Rome
became 'young with the young"' (n. 9). We can also add that the
Church became "young with the young". Once again we realized
that young people are not only the hope for the future, but are already
present and active in the Church. They really are the "morning
watchmen" at the dawn of the third millennium.

When the Holy Father launched the idea of World Youth Day, many
critical voices were raised, some even hoped that this papal initiative
would be a great failure. Many analysts said that the youth were unaware
of the post-war shortages and had not known the sufferings of the great
wars which destroyed Europe in the first half of the 20th century.
Others evoked the phantom of the 1968 protests and post-modern
indifferentism that was taking hold of the new generations of the
children of television, of rock 'n' roll, of internet and of the sexual
revolution. However, when my predecessor, Cardinal Eduardo Pironio, as
President of the Pontifical Council for the Laity threw himself into
this wonderful initiative that was born from the heart of Pope John Paul
II, the results were not long in coming. The response from the young
people was great and the Church was enriched by the valid contribution
of a generation that many considered lost.

Young people want to be committed to a continuous and complete
reconciliation

One could sense a yearning for authenticity, for generosity, a strong
desire to be witnesses in the world, to draw attention not to themselves
but to certain values that seemed lost, dead. They were young people who
live in freedom (cf. John Paul II, Crossing the threshold of hope,
ch. 19), who had not experienced the extermination camps or the
trenches, but were well aware that these dangers would be lying in wait
unless they built a new model of society that was more human and
more in harmony with the will of God. The idealism of these young people
touched many consciences, it was felt by many governments, it appeared
in the streets of many cities that were considered cold and
unchangeable. I am thinking, for example, of the "Paris
revolution" of 1998, when the young people of the 13th World Youth
Day followed the Way of the Cross along the streets of the capital of
modernity before the astonished eyes of the passers-by.

The young people of this new millennium are beginning to live more
purified from the romantic traditions and rational prejudices, more
aware of the limits of human reason and more anxious to build a society
of peace that leaves amark in history at any cost. These are the
young people who arrived in Tor Vergata, young people who spoke of
pardon and of chastity, of prayer and of commitment, of vocational
seeking , young people for whom peace is something more than "sex,
drugs and rock 'n roll". They were all committed to a continuous
and complete reconciliation. They were young people who spoke about
martyrdom and accepted the challenges of the Pope who questioned them
from the Gospel, from the "workshop of faith", from the
workshop where the Christian generations of the third millennium are
forged.

Youth is perfect time to present ideal of Christian holiness that is
born from love

Youth is not "only a period of life that corresponds to a
certain number of years, it is also a time given by Providence to
every person and given to him as a responsibility. Duringthat
time he searches, like the young man in the Gospel, for answers to basic
questions; he searches not only for the meaning of life, but also for a
concrete way to go about living his life. This is the most fundamental
characteristic of youth" (Crossing thethreshold of hope,
ch. 19). In fact, these words of Pope John Paul II describe very
well what youth is. It is the time of life in which the human being
establishes himself. It is, therefore, a period of work in personal
formation, in forging one's character, in deepening the values that will
sustain one's life. For this reason, if young people are a duty in
themselves, they are also a duty for the Church, a priority choice in
the commitment to the evangelization of the men and women of our time
and in the construction of a society founded on Christian values.

Youth, moreover, is the time when the human being seeks love as a key
instrument for his growth and self-fulfilment. It is the time when the
desire to give one's life to the other and to others is strongest. Youth
is self-giving, commitment, generosity. For this reason it is the
perfect time for presenting the ideal of Christian holiness that is born
from love. The young person seeks love and the Church, following Christ,
makes love the centre of her message and the instrument for carrying out
her mission. This priority of love is the point where the Church and
young people meet. It is a long journey that does not end in a day, but
it is a goal that harmonizes desire and providesthe courage to overcome
difficulties and accept suffering. This love is real, it is not mere
sentiment. It is a love that takes life in its entirety and impels it
towards the summit of happiness.

In his greeting for the 15th World Youth Day, the Pope askedthe
young people: "What did you come to seek?You came here to
celebrate your Jubilee; the Jubilee of the young Church. Yours is not
just any journey: if you have set out on pilgrimage, it is not just for
the sake of recreation or an interest in culture. Well then, let me ask
again: what have you come in search of? Or rather, who have you come
hereto find? There can only be one answerto that: you
have come in search of Jesus Christ! But Jesus Christ has first gone in
search of you. To celebrate the Jubilee can have no other meaning than
that of celebrating and meeting Jesus Christ, the Word who took flesh
and came to dwell among us" (John Paul II, 15 August 2000). The
young people of the Jubilee were seeking Christ becausethis need
for a sure guide is typical of young people. Young people "need
guides, andthey want them close at hand" (Crossing
thethreshold of hope, ch. 19). For this reason they need
Christ, his Word, his person, his testimony, but above all his
salvation. The Church continues Christ's work. Jesus Christ is in the
Church, the Church is born from him. Only she can present Christ to the
young people with certainty and truth. Christ is the best guide,he
is the only one who has words of eternal life.

To be able to give, we must first draw near to Christ and fully
understand his message

Young people are for the Church "a gift of the Spirit of
God" (NovoMillennio ineunte, n. 9). They make her
discover the deepest reality of her mission. The long lines of young
people waiting to go to confession in the Circus Maximus restored
the confidence of many priests in the sacrament of reconciliation. They
taught us anew to be priests or, rather, they reconfirmed us in our
vocation. They gave the world a very eloquent lesson of transcendence in
presenting themselves to the merciful judgement of the Lord of life and
of history in the magnificent setting of the Circus Maximus.

Young people invite us with their testimony to fix our gaze on the
Lord, to contemplate his face. If we want to present to our young people
an authentic Church, based on a sincere faith, a strong hope and love
that knows no barriers, we must turn to Christ, the guide of young
people, the only Master. "The Church's joy was great this year, as
she devoted herself to contemplating the face of her Bridegroom andLord.
She became more than ever a pilgrim people, led by him who is the 'great
shepherd of the sheep' (Heb 13,20). With extraordinary energy, involving
so many of her members, the People of God here in Rome, as well as in
Jerusalem and in all the individual local Churches, went through the
'Holy Door' that is Christ. To him who is the goal of history and the
one Saviour of the world, the Church and the Spirit cried out: 'Marana
tha—Come, Lord Jesus' (cf. Apoc 22,17.20; 1
Cor 16,22)" (NovoMillennio ineunte, n. 1). Young
peopleask the Church to preserve this energy, this attitude of
tireless searching for the face of Christ in all things, in all events;
this is the sign of true authenticity.

To be able to give, we must first contemplate, draw near to Christ to
attract others, profoundly understand his message to be able to transmit
it in depth.

To follow Jesus is to walk in his footsteps, to adopt his way of
life, to believe in his values

With their enthusiasm, young people encourage the Church to "put
out into the deep". They tell us, with the Pope,not to be
afraid to leave our many certainties to become seriously committed to a
life of holiness and the evangelization of men. They invite us to be
more generous. They teach us to put more trust in the action of the
Lord, the only one whocan change the hearts of two million young
people, than in ourselveswho have spent many nights fishing
without catching even one fish. We have learned a lot from the
experience of the World Youth Days, for which the most optimistic
calculations of participation have always been exceeded by the action of
God.

We must leave the peace of the lakeside and set out towards the
encounter with God and with men.

Before a world in which the value of the superficial and the
pleasurable holds sway, the young pilgrims made us discover the way of
the Cross which is the way of authenticity in following Christ. To
follow Jesus is to walk in his footsteps, adopt his way of life, believe
in his values and in his convictions. It is to learn to give everything
its right place, to establish clearly the parameters of the mission that
has been entrusted to us. "Jesus is not a Messiah of triumph and
power. In fact, he did not free Israel from Roman rule and he never
assured it of political glory. As a true Servant of the Lord, he carried
out his mission in solidarity, in service, and in the humiliation of
death. He is the Messiah who did not fit into any mould and who came
without fanfare, and who cannot be 'understood' with the logic of
success and power, the kind of logic often used by the world to verify
its projects and actions" (Message for the 16th World Youth Day,
n. 2).

To follow Christ means to deny oneself and "to deny oneself is
to give up one's own plans that are often small and petty in order to
accept God's plan. This is the path of conversion, something
indispensable in a Christian life, and that led St Paul to say, 'it is
no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me' (Gal 2,20). Jesus does
not ask us to give up living, but to accept a newness and fullness of
life that only he can give. The human being has a deep-rooted tendency
to 'think only of self', to regard one's own person as the centre of
interest and to see oneself as the standard against which to gauge
everything. One who chooses to follow Christ, on the other hand, avoids
being wrapped up in himself and does not evaluate things according to
self interest. He looks on life in terms of gift and gratuitousness, not
in terms of conquest and possession. Life in its fullness is only lived
in self-giving, and that is the fruit of the grace of Christ: an
existence that is free and in communion with God and neighbour (cf. Gaudium
etspes, n. 24)" (ibid., n. 4).

For disciples of Christ the Cross is a sign of love and not of
torture

To follow Christ, to be his disciple, is to courageously take the
path of the Cross. For a disciple of Christ, the Cross is a sign of
love, not of torture. "it is not suffering for its own sake that a
Christian seeks, but love. When the cross is embraced it becomes a sign
of love and of total self-giving. To carry it behind Christ means to be
united with him in offering the greatest proof of love" (ibid., n.
5).

We should not be afraid of proposing and of inviting young people to
follow Christ. The Holy Father has been doing so since the beginning of
his pontificate, he did it again in Tor Vergata and he asks it again in
the Apostolic Letter Novo Millennio ineunte: "if Christ is
presented to young people as he really is, they experience him as an
answer that is convincing and they can accept his message, even when it
is demanding and bears the mark of the Cross. For this reason, in
response to their enthusiasm, I did not hesitate to ask them to make a
radical choice of faith and life and present them with a stupendous
task: to become 'morning watchmen' (cf. Is 21,11-12) at the dawn of the
millennium" (ibid.,n. 9).

These young people are the "morning watchmen" who will
awaken their brothers and sisters and put out into the deep in this vast
ocean of the third millennium which is opening before the Church.

May Mary Most Holy, "Star of the New Evangelization" be
"the radiant dawn and sure guide for our steps" (ibid.,n. 58).

Taken from:
L'Osservatore Romano
Weekly Edition in English
8/15 August 2001, page 10

L'Osservatore Romano is the newspaper of the Holy See.
The Weekly Edition in English is published for the US by: